Feels Like Home
by Pensulliwen
Summary: Alphonse becomes reacquainted with his body and senses. Winry is happy to simply watch in silence and marvel over how whole they have all become. FMA gift exchange, no pairing.


FMA Gift Exchange Prompt: Alphonse and Winry (not as a pairing!). "Silence is underrated."

**Feels Like Home**

**By Allegra**

Soft. He was lying on something soft and warm. It felt nice, after so long. Alphonse smiled, remembering where he was. He kept his eyes closed, savoring the safe feeling of the Rockbell's guest bed. The slight weight of the comforter still halfway over him, the smooth sheets he'd managed to tangle himself in during the night. _Feeling_. It was such a nice thing, he didn't know how he had gone so long without it. But now that he had it back, he was enjoying every moment of it. Just the way his clothes rubbed against his skin when he shifted was enough to make him smile, and every embrace made him feel like all of his nerves were on fire. Thankfully, there had been a lot of embraces lately. Alphonse supposed that the initial appreciation of all the little touches would fade with time as it became second nature again. But for now, every single sensation was exciting.

He could smell many things in the room, but the strongest scent was coming from his right, by the bedside table. Alphonse turned towards it, inhaling the fruity yet sharp scent deeply. He could almost taste it in the air. It was enough to make him finally open his eyes, squinting as they adjusted to the bright, sun-lit room. It stung a bit, but that was somehow pleasing too, because he had_ eyes_. Real eyes that watered and burned when he looked at the sun for too long. The sting felt like a blessing.

It was a bit too bright for morning, though; they had let him sleep in. That was something to be both grateful for and annoyed by. Sleep was a wonderful, wonderful thing. The faint snippets of dreams that he had experienced so far were incredible, and he wanted desperately to have more. Simply being able to shut his mind down for a few hours was better than he could have possibly imagined. But on the other hand, he was antsy; there was so much to _do_, so much to experience again. Sleep almost felt like wasted time. It was silly— they had time now, would always have time. But days couldn't last long enough to fit everything in.

Alphonse was roused from his thoughts by a creaking noise coming from the door. If his senses had been well honed by battle before, he was hyperaware now. Which had its draw backs, really; it was hard to sleep when every little sound in the old house was a different note to be heard. But he was confident that that too would pass. He glanced towards the sound, and was amused to see a blue eye peering through the partially open door. A hand came up to brush back a lock of blonde hair as Winry cautiously poked her head in further, freezing as she noticed Alphonse looking directly at her. A moment later she was grinning at being caught, pushing the door open the rest of the way.

"Good morning Sleepyhead," she greeted, crossing the room to sit at the foot of the bed. He felt the weight by his legs, trapping them under the comforter snuggly. Alphonse returned the smile.

"Good morning." He glanced into the empty hallway before looking back at her. "Where's brother?"

"Out," Winry answered with a roll of her eyes, but the effect was ruined by the fond smile that followed it. "Couldn't keep him in the house more than an hour."

"He'll be back for lunch," Al pointed out, glancing at his bedside table and finally discovering the source of the smell: they had set a bowl of peaches there. He could kiss whoever did that.

"That's true," Winry agreed, noting his fixation on the fruit. "Hungry?"

"A little," he admitted, reaching (his sleep shirt rubbed against his arm as he stretched) for the closest peach (fuzzy but firm in his hand) and bringing it back to simply look at it for a moment, smiling a little goofily. Winry giggled at his expression as he bit into it, squirting some juice on his face in the process. _Taste_. Now that was something indescribable. Tart, juicy, sweet. Alphonse was fairly certain that he could live on nothing but peaches and be happy. But then again, he had thought the same of apple pie yesterday. Savoring every texture against his tongue, he finally swallowed the bite only to take another ravenously.

Winry watched all of this with a soft smile on her face. She could still hardly believe that her boys were finally home and whole (well, mostly), but at the same time it all felt so right. After being gone for so many years, they still slid right back into her life as if they had never been missing. She vaguely wished that she had brought a napkin as the normally polite boy in front of her smeared the juice dribbling down his chin across his face with one hand without pausing his steady consumption of the peach. There was something nice about it, though. Some unnamable quality that felt familiar and good. There were many things that needed to be done, not the least of which was upgrading the plans for Edward's leg. But for the moment, Winry felt quite content watching Alphonse eat a peach. It was simple and quiet. So for the next few minutes, they sat in silence. Al finished the peach and reached for another. The minutes stretched on, unacknowledged by either of them.

"I can't believe how much you've grown," Winry said suddenly, raising a hand to brush against a cheek that was sticky with peach juice and undeniably real. She didn't know what she had been expecting exactly. Not that he would look the same, but not that he would be so grown up either. Alphonse smiled, and Winry dropped her hand to tap each of his fingers. Ten perfect (if a little messy) fingers. She glanced up again. Two perfect eyes, one perfect nose, one perfect mouth. Blonde hair and two ears at the sides of a perfect head. One face that was undeniably Alphonse. One body that was undeniably Alphonse. A _complete_ Alphonse. Unthinkingly, Winry leaned forward to wrap her arms around him in a tight hug.

Alphonse smiled against her hair, returning the gesture. He was growing quite used to her sudden embraces and enjoyed them every time. Less violent than Mei's, but just as strong; both approaches had their own charm. It was truly wonderful, to feel her hugging him again. Alphonse was quite sure that he would never tire of it. It felt so very… Winry.

The "I missed you," was left unsaid. It was understood between the two of them as clearly as the "welcome home."


End file.
